Consumers' acceptance and characterisation of innovative food prototype

Consumer beliefs about the risks and benefits of novel foods determine whether they will be accepted or not by the consumer. Factors such as ethical concerns, worries about the potential environmental impact of novel crops or processes, and trust in risk regulators and science are of importance in consumer decision-making. Even if the consumer benefits from a particular functional food are obvious, consumer acceptance might not be automatic and may fail if these issues are not adequately understood. However, product liking and sensory properties are also fundamental in determining consumers' food choices, and it is important to simultaneously consider both elements when evaluating innovative food prototypes. Furthermore, consumers are more and more interested in having information on food’s characteristics in order to guarantee their authenticity, quality and safety. The spectrometry of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) has more and more applications in this field, as it allows to determine in a rapid and repeatable way the metabolomic profile of a food, which is also linked to its qualitative and sensory characteristics.

The aim of the research is to measure consumers' acceptance of novel food prototypes taking into account individual motivations, attitudes, drivers, and barriers towards food innovation. Furthermore, the prototypes will be characterized through an NMR approach.

1. Food technologies aspects (e.g. voluntary exposure, perceived naturalness, risk perception) and consumers' characteristics (e.g. food technology neophobia, picky eating, disgust sensitivity) will be investigated simultaneously in an online survey (collaboration with Task 3.2.4 Consumer interactions and acceptability of novel food and technologies).                                              
2. The development of external information (e.g. front-package claim) on the application of innovative technologies in the food industry on consumer acceptability of processed food products of interest by ONFOODS partners (e.g. baked and/or fermented products).
3. Standard operating procedures for the NMR analysis of the prototypes will be determined.
4. The characteristic profile of the prototypes will be analysed and defined.

The activity of this task foreseen the collection of consumer acceptability/willingness to taste at least 4 prototypes of novel food developed by ONFOODS partners (e.g. baked and/or fermented products and/or functional dairy products) and their analysis.

The proposed activities will provide a database of the attitudes, drivers, and barriers towards food innovation of at least 1000 Italian consumers and of consumer acceptability/willingness to taste at least 4 novel food prototypes developed by ONFOODS partners.  Furthermore, a database of the metabolomic profile of the prototypes will be established. The main results will be:

1. Report on the Identification of consumer segments with different levels of attitude and beliefs towards innovative foods and technologies 
2. Report on the effect of external information about innovative technologies application on prototypes’ acceptability.
3. Verification if consumer segments with different attitudes and beliefs experienced a different impact of external information on liking.
4. Report on the metabolomic profile of the prototypes.